The construction of an aircraft typically involves the fabrication of a number of subassemblies. For example, an aircraft wing may be formed as a subassembly of one or more wing panels assembled with one or more spars, stringers, ribs, and other structural elements or details such as a side-of-body chord member. A side-of-body chord may be mounted to an inboard edge of a wing panel to provide structural reinforcement at the wing-fuselage juncture. In an embodiment, the side-of-body chord may be provided with a clevis edge having a slot that may be configured to mate to an inboard edge of the wing panel. Because of the aerodynamic contour of the wing panel, the side-of-body chord may be fabricated with a contour that is generally complementary to the wing panel contour to allow the slot of the side-of-body chord to be fitted onto the edge of the wing panel.
Occasionally, a side-of-body chord may be fabricated with a contour that is non-complementary to the contour of the wing panel such that the side-of-body chord may not fit over the wing panel edge without the use of force. Conventional methods for applying force to install the side-of-body chord include the manual application of localized force to the side-of-body chord and/or to the wing panel. Unfortunately, the wing panel and/or the side-of-body chord may be relatively large and/or stiff elements such that extensive force may be required to urge the side-of-body chord onto the wing panel with potentially undesirable effects. Furthermore, the manual application of localized force to the wing panel and/or the side-of-body chord may be a time-consuming process which may have an undesirable effect on the production schedule.
As can be seen, there exists a need in the art for a system and method for assembling components without the manual application of localized force.